TEHRAN – A total of eight garden houses, which have been constructed within legal boundaries of Sialk hills, are ordered to be brought down to earth near the significant archaeological site in central Iran.  

Unfortunately, in recent years, several illegal constructions have been carried out within the legal properties of Tapeh Sialk (“Sialk hills”), which is one of the most valuable ancient sites in the world, causing irreparable damage to visual elements of the ancient hill, CHTN quoted a local tourism official as saying on Thursday.

So far, a total of twelve same decrees of destruction have been executed within the demarcated properties of the hill, the official said.

“Recently, eight new [court] decrees have been issued to eliminate the remaining damages… by the order of the city prosecutor in collaboration with Kashan Municipality.”

Sialk and the importance of the Proto-Elamite period in Iran; the Iron Age in Sialk; and anthropological collections of Sialk preserved at the Paris-based Homme Museum were among topics discussed at the conference.

Situated halfway between Kashan and Fin in Isfahan province, Tapeh Sialk has yielded interesting pottery pieces, metal tools, and domestic implements made from stone, clay, and bone that date from as early as the 4th millennium BC.

Sialk is a treasure trove of information about diverse subjects such as paleobotany, palaeozoology, palaeoanatomy, diet, climate change, and ancient metallurgy.

Several excavation projects at the site have so far been conducted, beginning with a 1933 French Louvre delegation led by Roman Ghirshman; capping with a most recent project in 2009, which was led by Hassan Fazeli-Nashli, a faculty member of the Archaeology Department, University of Tehran.

AFM/